Comments on: Japan status update after 3 days http://josiahsjohnson.com/posts/62/japan-status-update-after-3-days/ Wouldn't it be a lovely headline? LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!... on the New York Times Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:58:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3 By: ODA MITSUO http://josiahsjohnson.com/posts/62/japan-status-update-after-3-days/#comment-1054 ODA MITSUO Sat, 28 Mar 2009 05:07:25 +0000 http://josiahsjohnson.com/posts/62/japan-status-update-after-3-days/#comment-1054 Hello, Josiah. Me, whom you met at the Kamo riverbank, Kyoto. I can read and write English enough, although my conversation skill is terrible, as you know. Hahaha! Thank you for your appreciation for Japanese people, and I'm glad to read you got a nice experience in a Tokyo park(although I can't guess where you were from your information you wrote). And your appreciation for Sake. Cheers for your boozin' spree(you had?)! The song which I let you heard is called "Hana". "Hana" means flower(s). This is a song in the Meiji Era, composed in 1900, by Taki Rentaro, a famous songwriter. Indeed, it is the first song made in Japan who has the western style chorus with it. I had tried to translate this song into English. This is my interpretation; <i> Sumida River in the right spring, Boatmen, who come along up and down. Drops trickling from their rows, scattering like flowers, How can be explained, this splendid scenery? Why don't you look? There’s dawn, Cherry blossoms talk to us, dressed in dews. Why don't you behold? There’s dusk, Green willows invite us, stretching their hands. Above a long embankment in the evening dress, Comes and rises a hazy moon. Surely are, two hours, worthy of two million pounds! How can be explained, this splendid scenery? </i> Sumida River flows through east Tokyo. Plus, trivial stuff. If you say "Sensō-ji temple",for example, you have a wrong translation. Japanese "ji" means "temple". So when you say "Sensō-ji temple", it is equal to that you call "Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris" "<strong>Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral</strong>". That's funny, isn't it? You seem not to be able to read Japanese fully, so maybe you can't read my blog. But, that's OK. I can at least read English. Japanese is one of the most difficult languages in the world, so I can't blame you for not knowing our mother tongue. Continue your good trip, with your fellows. An email from you is welcome, of course. Bye. Hello, Josiah.
Me, whom you met at the Kamo riverbank, Kyoto.
I can read and write English enough, although my conversation skill is terrible, as you know. Hahaha!

Thank you for your appreciation for Japanese people, and I’m glad to read you got a nice experience in a Tokyo park(although I can’t guess where you were from your information you wrote).

And your appreciation for Sake. Cheers for your boozin’ spree(you had?)!

The song which I let you heard is called “Hana”.
“Hana” means flower(s).
This is a song in the Meiji Era, composed in 1900, by Taki Rentaro, a famous songwriter.
Indeed, it is the first song made in Japan who has the western style chorus with it.

I had tried to translate this song into English.
This is my interpretation;


Sumida River in the right spring,
Boatmen, who come along up and down.
Drops trickling from their rows, scattering like flowers,
How can be explained, this splendid scenery?

Why don’t you look? There’s dawn,
Cherry blossoms talk to us, dressed in dews.
Why don’t you behold? There’s dusk,
Green willows invite us, stretching their hands.

Above a long embankment in the evening dress,
Comes and rises a hazy moon.
Surely are, two hours, worthy of two million pounds!
How can be explained, this splendid scenery?

Sumida River flows through east Tokyo.

Plus, trivial stuff.
If you say “Sensō-ji temple”,for example, you have a wrong translation.
Japanese “ji” means “temple”.
So when you say “Sensō-ji temple”, it is equal to that you call “Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris” “Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral“. That’s funny, isn’t it?

You seem not to be able to read Japanese fully, so maybe you can’t read my blog.
But, that’s OK.
I can at least read English.
Japanese is one of the most difficult languages in the world,
so I can’t blame you for not knowing our mother tongue.

Continue your good trip, with your fellows.
An email from you is welcome, of course.

Bye.

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